Protocols and Activities Organized by Criterion
The activities and protocols on this site have been organized by the IB’s four Language A assessment criteria to help teachers target skill areas in their lesson planning. Tracking student assessment data by criterion helps teachers see trends in student performance and target skill areas in subsequent units.
Knowledge, Understanding and Interpretation
Formulating Interpretive Statements
This activity scaffolds the process of developing an “interpretive statement” in response to a text or work. This is achieved through a sentence completion exercise that pushes students to think beyond the surface to consider the underlying thoughts and feelings expressed by an author or experienced by a reader. An “Interpretive Statement” may: 1. Establish what the text is about, […]
4-Step Poetry Protocol
This protocol provides students with an approach to reading and engaging with poetry. The collaborative approach gives students the opportunity to learn from their peers while sharing their own observations and ideas about the poem in a structured protocol. Teaching Resources 4-Step Poetry Protocol Notes Sheet (PDF) 4-Step Poetry Protocol Notes Sheet (Word) Preparation Choose a poem to analyze. Provide […]
3-Check Questions Socratic Seminar
This activity encourages students to engage with texts through inquiry. Identifying the level of comprehension required to respond to each question invites students to be reflective about their inquiry practice and to evaluate the level at which they are engaging with texts. Listening to peers discuss familiar questions further invites reflection and self-evaluation and is also important for developing an […]
Defining “Comprehension”
This activity introduces the concept to students that there are three levels of comprehension: Literal comprehensionInferential comprehensionCritical comprehension The activity further engages students with the three levels of comprehension by asking students to formulate questions in response to a passage. This ultimately helps students understand the difference between knowledge, understanding, and interpretation so they may set clear learning goals and […]
What happens when I read?
This metacognitive activity invites students to consider the complex processes involved in decoding and comprehending texts. Understanding the roles that background knowledge, textual details, and personal experience play when a reader makes inferences and critically evaluates a work helps students understand the concepts of “understanding” and “interpretation” more meaningfully. Teaching Resources PDF Presentation Passages PPT/Word Presentation Passages Preparation For the […]
Making a Précis
This activity guides students on how to distill a text into 100-200-word précis or summary. This is a helpful skill for preparing a passage response analysis. Read the text several times.Underline key sentences in the reading. Identify key points of the text by making notes in the margins.Make an outline of the text. This can identify the main idea of […]
Color, Image, Song
This activity has students think creatively about a character, setting, or text by forming comparative connections to demonstrate their understanding. Process Assign a passage or text to read. Alternatively, you can use a literary aspect of a longer work (such as a character, setting, conflict, etc.).Individually…Ask students to choose a color that captures the essence of the text or literary […]
Stir the Classroom
This protocol requires that members take ownership of the ideas discussed within a group so that if called, they can synthesize them for their next collaborative group. It also allows for groups to learn about others’ ideas and discussions without taking time to share as a full group. Process Arrange students in groups of 4 around the perimeter of the […]
5-3-1
This protocol helps students independently synthesize information, events, or key ideas from a work/body of work. Process Ask students to identify 5 words that represent concepts, ideas, issues, or pervading emotions of the work or body of work.Place students in groups of 3-5.Ask students to share their idea, one at a time, in round-robin fashion. Students can explore the ideas […]
Most Important Point
This simple protocol helps students identify and synthesize the most important point in a work. As students share their most important points with one another, they may also reflect on the role that personal values might play in identifying information as “important”. Preparation The teacher chooses a text to work with: this might be a short text such as an […]
Card, Stack, and Shuffle
Assumptions play an important role in our understanding and interpretation of work, and this protocol helps students critically evaluate assumptions. The types of assumptions will be different for literary vs. non-literary works. Process Divide students into groups of 4.Give each group a different sentence stem that prompts an assumption about the work (e.g., In Americanah, Ifemelu is struggling to assimilate […]
Assumptions Wall
This protocol helps students process their own assumptions about a work compared to others’ assumptions about a work. The types of assumptions will be different for literary vs. non-literary works. Teachers can narrow the assumption task (e.g., assumptions about the protagonist) if they feel this will be of more benefit to students. Process Ask students to list assumptions about the […]
Appoint a Devil’s Advocate
This protocol invites divergent thinking in a group and works to facilitate a culture where different ideas are viewed as collaborative rather than combative. Preparation Prepare discussion questions.Make groups ranging from 3-5 students. Process Provide students with discussion questions, matching the number of discussion questions with the number of people there are in the group (i.e., 3 people, 3 questions). […]
Concept Formation
In this activity, students use small examples to establish what a concept is (and is not). This inductive strategy works to give depth, ownership, and mental images to a concept by leveraging students’ schemas to build understanding. Process Give students a concept that plays a significant role in a unit or work you are exploring.Either in small groups or as […]
Critical Lenses
Critical lenses help students engage with different perspectives with which to approach the reading and interpretation of a work. Each lens contains questions that provoke thinking regarding the way different social groups, ideas, conflicts, and styles are presented in the work. There are many sources available to support a study of critical lenses; this resource by OWL Purdue is open […]
People, Place, Thing Cards
This activity uses “third point objects” that help students think critically and creatively about a work. When students are faced with physical and abstract juxtapositions, they rely on their flexible thinking skills to establish connections and formulate justifications for their comparative claims. Preparation Select a range of images that correspond to the work or body of work being studied. The […]
Interviews using Naïve Questions
Conversations with a naïve partner can be an effective means to engage in reflection and identify gaps in knowledge or understanding. The protocol below can be assigned to pairs of students, where the interviewer is pretending to be naïve or is actually naïve (in the case of an independent inquiry project or a lit circle structure); or the protocol can […]
Text Rendering: First Turn, Last Turn
Identifying significant lines of text is a reading skill. Many students will describe this process as being intuitive claiming, “the line just SEEMS important”. Students who struggle with this skill find this response frustrating. While there may be some intuitive sense to identifying important information in a text, students can also unpack this intuition by reflecting on the reasons why […]
Text Rendering
Identifying significant lines of text is a reading skill. Many students will describe this process as being intuitive claiming, “the line just SEEMS important”. Students who struggle with this skill find this response frustrating. While there may be some intuitive sense to identifying important information in a text, students can also unpack this intuition by reflecting on the reasons why […]
Significant Quotes
Who said it? What is the context? and Why is this quote significant? may seem like an archaic exercise in today’s educational landscape, but the practice provides quick and valuable feedback on students’ critical reading skills and helps students develop an understanding of what makes a quote or piece of text “significant”. First, the activity isolates a student’s knowledge of […]
Journal Writing
Journal writing helps students develop important thinking skills. There are the traditional approaches used in the younger years, like imagining a minor character’s point of view or writing a diary entry from the perspective of a protagonist. These formative activities develop critical thinking skills, foster personal engagement, encourage students to take risks, and activate the imagination.It can also be beneficial […]
Analysis and Evaluation
Why might this detail matter?
This activity gets students to think about the significance of minor details in a work. These details can be used as evidence to form the basis of inferential and critical comprehension (i.e., understanding and interpretation). Preparation Choose a text or work as the basis of the activity. Students need to read the text, section, or work before the activity.Find details […]
Lightning Round Passage Annotations
This activity builds annotations skills that appreciate a writer's use of language by having small groups of students focus on one aspect of the annotation process at a time. Rotating the passages through different groups facilitates class collaboration, building on their classmates’ ideas as they are exposed to more passages. The “lightning” aspect of the task helps keep momentum and […]
Ladder of Abstraction
This activity allows students to process the ways in which details from a work might represent larger abstract ideas. Process Divide students in groups of 4.Introduce the concept of the “Ladder of Abstraction” by giving the following definition: The “ladder of abstraction” is an image and concept used to illustrate how language and reasoning evolves from concrete to abstract. The […]
Stir the Classroom
This protocol requires that members take ownership of the ideas discussed within a group so that if called, they can synthesize them for their next collaborative group. It also allows for groups to learn about others’ ideas and discussions without taking time to share as a full group. Process Arrange students in groups of 4 around the perimeter of the […]
Mind Maps
This activity helps students visually see and appreciate the ways in which parts make up a whole. One of the challenges many students have is appreciating the detailed intricacies of an idea or concept. There are two reasons for this: Firstly, holistic analysis requires students to hold a lot of information in their working memory at one time. If students […]
Diversity Rounds
This protocol directs students to reflect on the ways in which their identity shapes their reading/ audience response compared to others in a group. The reflection and comparison help students recognize the insight their perspective affords when it comes to thinking critically and creatively about a work and its effects. Preparation Choose identity categories that will work well with the […]
Musical Chairs Interview
At the beginning of a unit, this protocol works well with discussion questions that focus on the students’ personal response to a work (regarding characters, pivotal moments, reactions, thoughts about a subject matter or authorial choice, etc.). At the end of a unit, this protocol can be used to explore and practice open-ended essay style questions that focus on the […]
Text Rendering: First Turn, Last Turn
Identifying significant lines of text is a reading skill. Many students will describe this process as being intuitive claiming, “the line just SEEMS important”. Students who struggle with this skill find this response frustrating. While there may be some intuitive sense to identifying important information in a text, students can also unpack this intuition by reflecting on the reasons why […]
Text Rendering
Identifying significant lines of text is a reading skill. Many students will describe this process as being intuitive claiming, “the line just SEEMS important”. Students who struggle with this skill find this response frustrating. While there may be some intuitive sense to identifying important information in a text, students can also unpack this intuition by reflecting on the reasons why […]
Focus, Organization and Development
Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate: Concept Mapping Significant MOMENTS in a Work
This activity asks students to individually identify significant moments in a work and collaboratively connect the moments to ideas, issues, and other moments in the work. This helps students trust their instinctive, personal response to moments, scenes, confessions, etc. and then reflect on the reasons why these moments are significant, including how they may connect to more abstract ideas and […]
Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate: Concept Mapping IDEAS in a Work
This activity asks students to individually identify ideas and issues developed in a work and collaboratively connect and develop one another’s ideas. This ultimately helps students open their minds to the many ways in which readers respond to a work. Process Give students 2 minutes to individually generate a list of ideas, issues, and initial thoughts that come to mind […]
Ranking
This protocol helps students consider which ideas, issues, and feelings are playing a significant role in shaping their personal response to a work. Process Give each student 5-10 sticky notes. Ask them to write down ideas, issues, and feelings the text or body of work made them consider or experience in one to two words. Ask each student to rank the […]
Sort Card Activity
This activity helps students organize information and identify conceptual trends. This activity models a process that students can use when planning their own essays and presentations. Preparation Collate 10-15 quotes from a work that contain a range of concepts or ideas. Place each quote on a separate notecard or print them out single sided on a page so that students can […]
Significant Quotes
Who said it? What is the context? and Why is this quote significant? may seem like an archaic exercise in today’s educational landscape, but the practice provides quick and valuable feedback on students’ critical reading skills and helps students develop an understanding of what makes a quote or piece of text “significant”. First, the activity isolates a student’s knowledge of […]
Free Write Response
Peter Elbow is known for his advocacy of free writing practices and provides the following arguments in his book, Writing with Power (1981): Freewriting… helps students appreciate that writing can be a means of processing that does not always lead to a finished product.helps students overcome anxieties by forcing people to get over it and ‘get on with it’. helps students […]
Use of Language
Interpretive Statement Wall
This protocol helps students develop revision skills by asking clarifying and critical questions about each other’s interpretive statements or thesis statements. This helps students develop an objective perspective on their writing and appreciate the role language plays in clearly communicating abstract ideas in response to a work. Process Sit in a horizontal line looking at the statements posted by your […]
Evaluating Thesis Statements
This activity helps students understand the role language plays in communicating specific and complex ideas in a thesis statement. The approach invites active collaboration, and the anonymity helps students remain focused on the cognitive task without worrying about hurting a classmate’s feelings when criticizing and revising their work. Preparation Choose a question (or passage) to use for the activity that […]
Discussion Posts and Personalized Learning
This formative assessment gives students an opportunity to personalize their learning while engaging in collaborative discussion with their peers around their chosen text(s) or work. Preparation Decide an area of the curriculum where students can be given the freedom to explore different texts based on personal interests within teacher-set parameters. Some examples include: poetry, short stories, tv episodes of a […]
Stir the Classroom
This protocol requires that members take ownership of the ideas discussed within a group so that if called, they can synthesize them for their next collaborative group. It also allows for groups to learn about others’ ideas and discussions without taking time to share as a full group. Process Arrange students in groups of 4 around the perimeter of the […]
1-2-6
This protocol helps students generate ideas in response to a work. Process Give students a writing task, asking them to identify one thing they think the text, work, or body of work is about: What significant meaning is communicated through this text/work/body of work? [2 min]Pairs meet, share and agree to one statement (either choosing one, or combining ideas). [5 […]
Stem Completion
This activity provides students the language and framework to “get them going” on cognitively challenging tasks. This activity also helps students appreciate the important role precise language plays in articulating abstract meaning. Preparation Create sentence stems for students to complete that are tied to a specific skill you are working to develop in the unit study. Sentence stems for understanding […]
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